Free Company Recruiting tactics, what do you prefer when being recruited?

[JWag12787]

I typically use Party Finder while I'm in between whatever it is I'm doing to recruit. If someone is actively looking, I figured they'd use Party Finder.
Also recruit people I meet and like to play with that may not already be in an FC.

[hynaku]

Posting fc recruitment in party finder in others and sending a tell to ask if they want to join I think is two best ways. Not sending tells or trying to invite you to fc when your a wanderer from another server and sending fc spams think are worst way to try get ones to join.

[Gula]

Personal opinions strongly incoming.

Recruited via /tell
A nice attempt, but easily copy-pasted and feels insincere.


Recruited via /shout
Lol no. Usually try hard, and written by people with the advertising tact of a Toys-R-Us catalog. That is to say, vapid, systematic, and condescending with how childish it is.

Recruited via FC Invite feature without communication
Get lost.

Advertisement or something on Youtube or other platform
Unique, I've seen it for a JP Free Company. If its well done, it shows ingenuity and a company probably worth joining.

Stumbling across FC that you like and apply yourself
Trial by fire is still valid. I did this when I was new, and if I didn't like it, I left. Can lead to big disappointment from time to time, but I'd like it if this was a more viable strategy to find the right one if it had its own FC finder. Some people lv80 don't even know how to use Lodestone.

[ElazulHP]

Speaking as someone without an FC currently recruitment using shout is fine. I'll ignore anyone that sends me a tell and blacklist the ones that send me invites without even that. Otherwise, i'll find you through interacting with some of your members in the duty finder, hunts, linkshells, fellowships, events, ect.

[Sated]

If it's for social I prefer seeing shouts, but since I'm so rarely just idle in a city it's not too effective for visibility.
I'm very receptive to recruitment /tells when I'm leveling alts.

Back when I focused on progression I preferred to do the group hunting myself which involved research and applications, checking their active hours, progress, logs, requirements, drama, etc before I applied, so the recruiters having an established portal or at least post somewhere was important to help facilitate that.

[MrKusakabe]

As someone with higher expectations than the average "I dun wanna be alone : (((" sort of player, I am looking for a rock solid FC run by a person that simply knows how to invite and talk to people. I am absolutely tired of FCs bait-and-switch tactics that are nowhere near what they think they are. Almost like those bars in Thailand that have a guy giving you vouchers and in the end it's a terrible, smelly, overpricied drinking hole.


Here are some basics that turn me off / on when I am being confronted with a FC on recruitment:

• The way they reach me is basically not as important, but when I receive a whisper, I am already interested, because it's personalized.

• When said whisper contains something about me that can be found in my profile or in my profile text, I am very interested, just like in real life, when you already know some background information of the company you apply for.

• When there are stupid typos in their shouts, it's a no-go.

• When their recruitment is all too flowery and plain unrealistic, they are desperately looking for new players, so it's a poor FC.

• When they say "We do stuff together, all content, beginners and veterans welcome", you will never find a full group because the chances are high they have a certain overpopulation of a profession/lack. Like a "fragmentation of interests". 20% are crafters, 20% are healers, 20% are gatherers.. Good look getting a run.

• Names that are ridiculous are out of competition either, like "xXxSquallxXx" randomly inviting people. I expect a young person that just wants to be in a leader position. As 90s kid, I remember fondly how I was so proud to be the moderator of a crappy board in 2003. My qualities back then were absolutely not helpful for that position, so I don't trust such players eather.

• My last interesting shout was from an apparently German player who had "Raven" in her name and the FC was named accordingly. I think it was something like "The Raven has put his eyes on you..." and I was immediately interested. Weirdly intriguing, she means it and I expect her to put effort in her "baby".

• Then I had a tell that was saying they look for older players (as I have my age in my profile information) and they are fine with me being RDM and SCH. I was explaining that I recently left my FC and he spent so much time talking to me like a good businessman that likes his product.

• The smaller the FC, the better.

• I want and need several active people that take care of the FC. My last FC literally crumbled away as the leader left and it was like an avalanche leading to very desperate measures that made me leave in the end.I miss them a lot though, it really hurt to hit the "Leave FC" button and deleting the FC's Aymeric bot from Discord on that sad June 26, 2019, 9:30 PM..

Sincerely,

[PyurBlue]

On my alts I sometimes get FC invites. I'm not looking to join an FC when playing on those characters, so the ones I like are shouts and direct invites with no communication as I don't feel compelled to respond. People sometimes try to send tells to be polite but they can be more intrusive than just blindly inviting.

I think FC's should stick to shouts and PF if trying to recruit, but it's understandable that they might try other things given the lack of support in game for recruiting.

[DumdogsWorld]

To me, it's less about their methods and more about how I perceive their intentions. A free company invite can be either shameless or wholesome depending on the context.

If I feel like you're desperate for members, then I'll only ever consider joining if you're both extremely nice about it and show promise. On a similar note, I also do no like free companies that do not value their members, with people constantly coming and going.

Joining a free company is supposed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. If I don't feel like it's not going to be like that, then the free company is not for me.

[Arazehl]

The best method I found is sending a /tell to someone, starting off with, "Hello, how are you?" rather than "looking for an fc?" I want to hear about a person's FC and not in shouts.

I join only on a try before you buy basis. People can dress up any FC in a flowery little speech in shout and you can join to find much of it is not as advertised. There should always be a no obligation policy in place when joining an FC.

So I say, I would rather talk one on one with someone, over all the choices and hope that they are exactly who they advertise themselves as. Most importantly, I would want a "drama free" fc that's been established for awhile.

[RitsukoSonoda]

I either approach them because friends in game are with them or they seem interesting based on shout advertisements. I do not respond to blind invites in general on most games though. It's one of the behaviors that tends to annoy me.